


the one wherein Blaine and Mike are besties

by villiageidiot



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-11
Updated: 2010-12-11
Packaged: 2017-12-06 05:34:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/732003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/villiageidiot/pseuds/villiageidiot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That time of year again for the duets competition and it’s all jacked up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the one wherein Blaine and Mike are besties

“Guys,” Mr. Shuester starts as he walks into the room, and Blaine’s been expecting this since third period. “Guys, come on, settle down.”

Blaine gives a quick glance around the room but no one else really seems to be paying attention. His own boyfriend isn’t even listening. Kurt’s sitting next to him, legs crossed towards Blaine (which is an unequivocal sex invite, if he remembers Clueless correctly), and texting rapid-fire. Who he’s texting, Blaine has no idea, because he assumed pretty much everyone that Kurt even knew was in this room.

“Guys,” Mr. Shuester tries again.

Blaine waits attentively but knows it’ll probably be a few more minutes before he's got everyone’s attention. This is the part of the week when Mr. Shuester changes up their assignment and everyone freaks out and gets inexplicably irrational. This is what happens when Mr. Shuester and their school guidance counselor have long discussions in her office that end kind of dramatically and, in Blaine’s opinion, a little unprofessionally.

Blaine passed Mrs. Pillsbury-Howell’s office earlier on his way to third period and saw her waving her hands around about something for emphasis. Mr. Shuester looked like he was on the defensive and Blaine sighed, continuing his trek to Physics. He couldn’t hear what they were saying but he assumed it was going to end up with a big shakeup during glee club later. It always did. Like clockwork.

After almost two months, Blaine wasn’t totally settled in to McKinley yet and he still had a long way to go to but there were a few things he had come to grow accustomed to. The fact that his glee club director cared a little too much about what the guidance counselor thought was one of them. That and the fact that Mr. Shuester said the word “guys” about twelve hundred times a day.

“Change in plan, guys,” he says. Blaine looks around again. Brittany’s sitting in Artie’s lap (which seems really awkward and definitely inappropriate), Santana’s filing her nails and giving Puck the full view of what’s going on under her cheerleading skirt, Mercedes and Tina are leaning in towards each other and talking about … something. Sam and Quinn have their arms and legs wrapped around each other in a way that seems just _uncomfortable_ , playing that game they play like, all of the time, the one Kurt calls How Many Body Parts Can Be Touching Each Other. And Mike … well, Mike’s sitting with his hands folded, waiting. Suddenly, Blaine doesn’t feel like the only obedient nerd in the room.

“So I’ve realized we’ve fallen into a pattern,” Mr. Shuester says, and Blaine clarifies ‘ _Mrs. Pillsbury-Howell_ makes you think we’ve fallen into a pattern’ but only in his head. “So we’re going shake things up a bit.”

Kurt finally looks over at Blaine then, putting his cell phone away. His eyebrow is arched and he says, “This should be interesting.” Blaine smiles in response; he's not going to talk over a _teacher_.

“So I’m making a clarification on this week’s assignment.” A few of the students start to make concerned noises and their teacher raises his hands trying to appease them. “Hold up, let me finish, guys. We’re still doing our yearly duet competition. I’ve still got a Breadstix’s dinner on the line for the winners.” He pauses and Blaine hopes it’s not for emphasis because his classmates are already getting worked up enough.

“But don’t you see what we’re doing? We’ve all got it in our heads that we can only sing with one other person in this room and we’re better than that!” He’s got so much passion in his voice that Blaine almost feels bad for him. “So this time, you’re not singing with your traditional partner. Shake it up a bit; duet partners don’t have to be a guy and a girl.”

Blaine looks over to see Kurt smirking. But Mr. Shuester must come to the conclusion the same time Kurt does because he looks at the both of them and says, “Same goes for you two, too,” with a stern look that Blaine feels is completely unnecessary. I’m a rule follower, Blaine thinks indignantly. No need for that.

“No significant others,” Mr. Shuester tells them, assuming that should cover everyone, gay or straight.

And like clockwork:

“Mr. Shue, are you _kidding_ me? You can’t throw this at us six days before the deadline. Finn and I have already rehearsed our performance! I’ve spent hours on the _choreography_!”

“But … I don’t get it. Why would I sing with someone that isn’t Quinn? Isn’t that kind of like cheating?”

“Thank you, Mr. Shuester. Thank you for waiting until I finally found a boy that will actually sing a duet with me before making this rule. I transfer to an all-boys school, find myself a boyfriend, transfer _back_ from an all boys school, wait another semester for my boyfriend to transfer, and _then_ you make a No Significant Other clause. Lovely timing.”

Blaine tries to suppress a grin at the last one. He doesn’t think Kurt will find it very funny right now.

“Come on,” Mr. Shuester cajoles. “It’ll be fun. It’ll be something new and different.”

But no one’s listening to him; they’re all still grumbling. “This is stupid,” Brittany says, but Blaine’s pretty sure she doesn’t even know what’s going on.

Kurt looks at Blaine, irritation still all over his face. “I hate my life.”

“You do not,” Blaine laughs. “Plus, maybe it’s a good idea.”

Kurt raises an eyebrow.

“I just mean … we haven’t done a lot of rehearsing,” Blaine clarifies, which is an understatement. They haven’t even decided on a _song_. It’s not like they haven’t tried. They just usually … get distracted.

Kurt gives Blaine one of his tiny shrugs. “I suppose,” he says, sounding very put upon. “I guess I’ll see if Mercedes will have me.”

“Mercedes?” Blaine asks him, nose crinkling in confusion. “That doesn’t seem like what Mr. Shuester’s going for.”

“She’s not my significant other,” Kurt says but Blaine can tell he gets the point.

So Blaine just sits there while Kurt stands to make his way over to his best friend. He looks around the room uneasily, seeing a few people make the effort to find a new partner. Santana and Brittany are making their way towards each other and Quinn’s eyeing Finn a little warily. Blaine catches Mike’s eye, who looks just as awkward as Blaine feels. He gives Blaine a Hey What’s Up nod and Blaine returns it just as awkwardly.

“Okay, no, guys. This is not what I meant by shaking it up,” Mr. Shuester says, gesturing to Kurt and Mercedes and then to Brittany and Santana. “ _Shake it up_ ,” he says emphatically. No one moves and their teacher sighs.

“Mike, can I borrow your hat?” he asks. “Rachel, will you write everyone’s name down on a piece of paper?”

The kids all sigh dramatically and take their seats.

“If this is how we have to do it, this is how we have to do it,” Mr. Shuester says, sounding resigned.

Once they have everyone’s name in Mike’s hat, Mr. Shuester gestures to Rachel. “Would you like to go first?” he asks her.

She nods and walks over to the piano to draw the first name from the hat. “Blaine,” she calls out.

He startles when he hears his name and from the corner of his eye he can see Kurt smirking.

Blaine gives Kurt a glare.

“Karma’s a bitch,” Kurt says quietly with a little grin. “Next time maybe you’ll think twice about watching football with _my dad_ while I'm downstairs waiting.”

“It’s your _dad_ ,” Blaine hisses. “I’m going to do whatever the hell he tells me to do.”

“Blaine!” Rachel calls impatiently.

“Oh, right,” Blaine says, standing. “Uh.”

“Come sit with me,” Rachel instructs. “You can listen to my ideas.”

Blaine does as he’s told while Tina makes her way to the piano. “Artie,” she tells the class, her voice a little funny. Blaine makes a mental note to ask Kurt about that later. He’s so far behind on the gossip here.

Mr. Shuester gestures towards Finn who makes his way to the hat and takes his time picking a name. “Santana,” he says, his voice sounding strained.

Then it’s Sam’s turn and he picks his own name. He looks confused and unsure and Blaine wonders what this kid’s deal is. “Just pick another one and then put yours back in,” Mr. Shuester tells him patiently. “It’s fine.”

Sam withdrawals another name and looks at Kurt. “Kurt.”

Blaine glances over at his boyfriend but he’s not looking back. Instead, he and Finn are sharing some kind of meaningful look and Blaine _definitely_ files that one away.

Puck ends up pulling out Rachel’s name, Finn’s name, Sam’s name, Tina’s name and his own name before someone realizes that putting everyone’s name in the hat probably wasn’t the most effective plan. He finally gets Lauren’s name and she makes a noise that Blaine can’t identify. He doesn’t even want to.

Mike smiles as he opens his piece of paper. “Mercedes,” he tells the class, giving Mercedes a genuine smile.

“And that leaves Brittany and Quinn,” Mr. Shuester finishes.

The two blondes eye each other.

“Okay, guys, let’s get started!” he says and Blaine can see how he’s practically frothing at the mouth to go tell the guidance counselor what he did.

Rachel turns to him. “So I’m thinking for a Broadway theme,” she says. “And I think we should consider the classics instead of opting for the more obvious contemporary choices.”

Blaine nods his head. “Sure.” He watches Kurt with a smile and waits for the bell to ring.

:::

The next day, Blaine’s walking through the lunch line alone. Kurt sent him a short text earlier about rehearsing during lunch since Sam had afterschool football practice and Blaine just stared at it for a moment. He hadn’t eaten lunch alone since he started at the beginning of the year and it’s not something he was exactly looking forward to.

He scans the tables after he pays, looking for anyone he recognizes, anyone from glee club at all. He feels like the biggest nerd, like he has a giant “New Kid” sign stamped on his face. He sees Mike sitting alone at a table but he hesitates before making his way over, not sure if Mike eats with all of the other football players.

Blaine heads over and hovers awkwardly before Mike looks up. “Can I …?” he trails off.

“Sure,” Mike says, motioning to one of the chairs.

They eat in silence for a couple of minutes. “So, uh,” Blaine starts awkwardly. “Where’s Tina?”

Mike frowns slightly and shrugs. “Rehearsing.”

“Hmm.”

Mike chews a few tater tots and then asks, “Kurt?”

“Same,” Blaine answers, nodding.

“Yeah,” Mike says. And then after a moment, “They all take glee club pretty seriously.”

He thinks that over. “And you don’t?”

“No, I do,” he says quickly. “But, I mean.”

Blaine gives him a quizzical look.

“Today’s chicken nugget day,” Mike explains finally. “I just -- I really like chicken nugget day.”

He smiles. It’s not exactly Dalton food but Blaine’s not a snob, either. So he tries a nugget.

“Hmm,” he tells Mike. “These _are_ good.”

“Right?” he asks, eyes wide. “Who would choose practice over these?"

Blaine kind of agrees.

:::

The next day Blaine walks into the choir room for glee club and the only person in there is Mike, who’s sitting in the back row reading.

“Uh,” Blaine starts, looking around. Mike looks up from his Sports Illustrated.

“Hey,” he says. “Don’t worry; I’m sure they’ll be here eventually.”

Blaine’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. “Where are they?”

“No idea,” Mike says, looking back down to his magazine. “But it happens a lot.”

“What happens a lot?” he asks, sitting in one of the chairs in the front row.

Mike shrugs. “Punctuality isn’t their strong suit.”

Blaine just nods and waits. They sit in silence for awhile.

“Sometimes,” Mike starts, his voice hushed.

“Sometimes what?” Blaine asks, when he doesn’t continue.

“Sometimes I see them like, walking in the halls. Singing. Like no one else is there. Like they’re in a movie or something.”

“Weird,” he says.

Mike nods, looking very Conspiracy Theory. “Definitely.”

They sit in silence for awhile. Blaine waits.

“I know it’s probably not your thing,” Mike tells him and Blaine turns to see Mike holding up his Sports Illustrated. “But the Table of Contents says there’s an article about Australian speed swimmers so there’re probably some pictures of guys in Speedos. So.” He shrugs.

Blaine laughs and goes to sit next to Mike. Guys in Speedos aren’t really his thing but he’ll take the invitation.

They’re sitting there, hunched over the magazine, for a good ten minutes before the rest of the kids start filtering in. Tina’s first and she looks _pissed_.

“I have rhythm, right?” she asks her boyfriend, dropping herself into a chair on the other side of Mike.

“What?” he asks. “Of course.”

“No rhythm,” she mutters to herself. “I’m taking dancing advice from a kid in a wheelchair.”

Mike frowns but doesn’t say anything.

Kurt’s next and looks just as irritated. He gracefully lowers himself into the chair next to Blaine and in the back of his mind, Blaine wonders how Kurt manages to look elegant simply in the act of _sitting down_. He also wonders why the hell he swoons watching Kurt do the most mundane everyday activities. It’s pathetic.

“Do I sound like Faith Hill?” Kurt asks him. It’s not his usual tone; he actually sounds a little self-conscious.

“What?” Blaine asks, completely confused. “No. Who told you that?”

Kurt just shrugs and Blaine watches his eyes follow Sam's movement when he enters the room. Sam’s face is red and he looks worked up. He sits in the front row, not looking at Kurt.

Screw that guy, Blaine thinks. “You do not sound like Faith Hill,” Blaine repeats. “And I don’t know why anyone would tell you that.”

“It was a compliment!” Sam almost-yells, turning around. “I don’t get the big deal. I love Faith Hill.”

Kurt sniffs in disdain.

And then Finn’s voice carries into the room. “I haven’t even been alone with her! We talk about the duet through text messages!”

Rachel’s eyes narrow as the two make their way into the room. “You have her number in your phone?” She glowers for a minute and then says, “Well, fine. Maybe I’ll just have a secret rendezvous with _my_ duet partner, hm?”

Blaine frowns. “Do I get a say in that?”

But she’s not listening to him.

“Blaine? You’re going to cheat on me with _Blaine?_ ” Finn asks, voice going up a few decibels.

“No,” Blaine answers. “No, she’s definitely not.”

They both ignore him and take their seats front and center.

“I can’t believe you would do that to me,” Finn says. “To my step-brother, even.”

Blaine looks around in disbelief but no one’s paying any attention.

Brittany walks in then, looking kind of crestfallen. Artie’s wheeling behind her, trying to keep up. “No, _harmony,_ ” he says emphatically. "It’s not like _horny_ at all.”

Blaine sits back in his chair. He doesn’t hate people because he's too much of a gentleman for that but if he did, Mrs. Pillsbury-Howell would be pretty high up on the list.

:::

Blaine’s sentenced to eating alone the next day, too. He wants this stupid assignment to be over.

He walks up to Mike again. “You mind?”

Mike shrugs a response. “Not at all.”

They’re quiet for a few minutes. No chicken nuggets to talk about.

“You okay?” Blaine finally asks.

“Yeah,” Mike answers, sounding totally not-okay.

“Are you sure?” Blaine tries tentatively.

Mike sighs. “I just want this duet thing to be over. Mercedes wants me to sing like, a gospel song but I really _can’t_ so I keep offering to just take the spoken word part of the duet but then she keeps telling me that there _is_ no spoken word part.” He sighs again. “So then I volunteered to write a spoken word part of the gospel song and she didn’t take that too well.”

Blaine snorts in reply. “I have to wear a sailor outfit,” he says in reply. “You should see the hat Rachel picked out for me.” It’s not like Blaine has anything against sailors, it’s just that … well, there aren’t any sailors in Hairspray.

Mike lets out a sad exhale. “I can’t wait to actually eat lunch with Tina again, too.” And then as an afterthought, “No offense.”

“None taken. I know how you feel.”

Mike eyes him. “Yeah, how are you doing with that, by the way?”

He finishes chewing and then says, “Doing with what?”

“With Kurt and Sam. Singing.” Mike pauses. “Together.”

Blaine shrugs.

“Yeah,” Mike says. “I figured you’d be too cool to get worked up about that. It seems like it would take a lot more than that to get under your skin.”

And now Blaine’s confused. “More than what?”

“Exactly,” he answers. “I wish I was more like that. I keep thinking about Tina and Artie and how alone they are.”

“Oh,” Blaine says, still totally not getting it. He chews some more green beans. He doesn’t even like green beans.

“Yeah,” Mike sighs.

:::

Blaine drives Kurt home after school and finally brings it up. “What’s the deal with you and Sam?”

“What?” Kurt asks. He looks completely confused.

“You and Sam. Is there some back story I’m not getting?”

“No,” Kurt answers slowly. “We were almost duet partners last year, if that’s what you mean.”

“Almost?”

Kurt shrugs and settles back into the seat. “He just joined New Directions and I thought he was gay with a capital G. I mean, look at his hair,” Kurt tells him.

When he doesn’t continue, Blaine says, “And?”

“And that hair _screams_ homo. You don’t agree?”

“No, I mean, and then what?”

“Oh,” Kurt says, shrugging again. “Finn talked me out of it with some ridiculous reasoning, Sam and Quinn started that whole Flowers in the Attic romance thing, and I performed Le Jazz Hot.” He pauses. “And I performed the hell out of it. I was fantastic.”

“Huh.”

“Why?” Kurt asks him.

Instead of answering, Blaine says, “Did you like him?”

Kurt pauses. “I wouldn’t say that, no.”

“What would you say then?”

“I would say,” he starts, sounding like he’s choosing words very carefully, “I would say that I thought he was gay and the idea of not being alone was definitely appealing.”

Blaine doesn’t say anything.

“Why?” Kurt asks again.

Blaine says, “I think Mike thinks you liked him.” Because it sounds a whole hell of a lot less jealous then saying, You totally had a crush on him, didn’t you?

Kurt hums in response. “I guess I thought he was attractive. I can’t really remember anymore.”

Blaine arches an eyebrow in disbelief and smiles. “You expect me to believe that?”

“It’s true!” Kurt responds, eyes wide. “I met this guy a few weeks later and fell madly in love. Madly, hopelessly, desperately, passionately, helplessly --”

Blaine cuts him off and can’t stop laughing. “Okay, okay, I get it. No need for the theatrics.”

Kurt grabs Blaine’s free hand and starts to play with his fingers. “Theatricality pays off. I live my life by that.”

Blaine rolls his eyes. “Yeah but you also live your life by ‘I’m trying to change the world one sequin at a time’ so excuse me if I don’t take that too seriously.”

Kurt gasps dramatically. “I know you did not just downplay Lady Gaga. I thought you would have learned enough about karma this past week.”

He fights the urge to roll his eyes again.

:::

In the end, it’s kind of awesome that Blaine and Kurt aren’t duet partners. Blaine actually gets to _watch_ Kurt, which isn’t something he's typically able to do. He totally does anyway but when they’re in the middle of rehearsal for a big group number and Blaine’s just mooning over Kurt instead of actually learning the choreography ... well he looks kind of like a creeper.

This way is better, Blaine thinks. He’s sitting next to his new bestie Mike in the auditorium during Kurt and Sam’s performance and he can just _watch_. He takes it all in, the way Kurt moves and how he sounds and the expressions on his face while he performs. Sam’s to the left of him on stage flailing around like a dead whale but Blaine barely even registers it.

In some small corner of his mind, Blaine vaguely thinks of thanking their guidance counselor for giving him this opportunity. Minus the sailor hat, it was a pretty good time.

He goes back to watching Kurt sing the hell out of his half of Under Pressure and swoons a little more. Kurt is totally awesome.

Blaine is totally in love and it’s awesome.


End file.
